An Overview of Cryptogram Venture (CGV) 2022 Annual Investment Landscape

Source: Cryptogram Venture

The year 2022 was an exceptionally unusual year for the cryptocurrency industry. Starting with the collapse of Luna/UST, major institutional players like 3AC and FTX followed suit, compounded by the severe macro-financial environment's "de-leveraging" effects, leading the crypto industry into a prolonged winter. However, many investment institutions remain steadfast in their optimism for the prospects of Crypto and Web3 applications, focusing on the long term and actively making business arrangements in a "counter-cyclical" manner.

As a research and investment institution in the crypto and Web3 industry with compliance qualifications in Japan, Cryptogram Venture (CGV) has always adhered to a "research-driven investment" business orientation. Since its establishment, CGV has actively participated in extensive research in the crypto primary market, organized Japan's first Web3 hackathon (web3hackathon.io), and produced high-quality industry research reports (cgv.fund/blog), fully leveraging Japan's geographical advantages and business hub status to discover and support more innovative crypto projects globally.

"From 2020 to today, we have witnessed the rise of DeFi, the breakout of NFTs, the popularity of GameFi, the hype around the metaverse, the landing of Layer 2, and the surge of new public chains… These narratives from different fields support the rapid growth of the crypto sector," said CGV founder Steve Chiu. "It is crucial for crypto practitioners to discover and anticipate future narratives to respond and arrange in advance."

Based on professional trend research and accurate cycle predictions in the crypto industry, CGV has successfully participated in early investments in projects such as Republic, CasperLabs, AlchemyPay, The Graph, Bitkeep, Pocket, and Powerpool, as well as the yen stablecoin JPYW, which is regulated by the Japanese government, achieving substantial investment returns.

In 2022, CGV invested in dozens of crypto projects, broadly laying out key areas such as the metaverse, gaming, and NFTs. Typical projects include:

Metaverse Field

l SkyArk Chronicles : A multi-metaverse inspired mainly by Japanese anime, developing storylines around the virtual world created by Satoshi Nakamoto, featuring monsters and heroes from fantasy and urban realms, allowing players to immerse themselves in fantastical game worlds like Skyland, Sky Heroes, and Sky Legends.

l SecondLive : A center for Metaverse residents, gathering over 1 million users to express themselves, unleash creativity, and build their dream parallel universe, creating an open Web3 metaverse serving 1 billion people with UGC and AI-generated content.

l HALO : HALO collaborates with a decentralized community of 3D artists to achieve value interconnection with the real world through its existing economic system and brand effect. In HALO, character models are not just static images but represent you and your body reborn in the virtual world, connecting the virtual and real worlds.

Gaming Field

l Avalon: An MMORPG metaverse game that encompasses a P2E (play-to-earn) economic model and content creation tools.

l PIAS : A game themed around the revival of humanity, simulating agricultural scenarios that blend digital and physical cross-border elements, allowing players to exchange in-game items (NFTs) for real-world crops.

l Bedlam : An esports game center that creates and hosts personal gaming identities (performance stats and content) for web3 games. Users can participate in leagues or tournaments and follow their favorite teams.

l Orbler : A tower defense game driven by a P2E (play-to-earn) model that requires clever thinking and planning to achieve victory. Players become Orbler masters, defending their personal areas and battling enemies with magic orbs.

l Mechaverse : A mecha game from Japan dedicated to creating the world's first real-time strategy mecha gaming platform. The project draws inspiration from modern Japanese anime mechas and the cultural background of ancient samurai armor.

NFT Field

l UneMeta : A leading NFT incubation platform, trading market, and social space dedicated to providing a safer, more convenient, and higher-quality NFT participation experience for a wide range of NFT players, with abundant quality IP resources, mature NFT operation models, and solid technical and community infrastructure.

l BBC Protocol: A computing power service platform that integrates Bitcoin hash power distribution and multiple financial derivatives, aiming to create the next computing power metaverse with NFTs. It collaborates with numerous large Bitcoin mining pools, mining machine manufacturers, mines, and power suppliers to provide users with systematic BTC mining and financial derivative value-added services.

l Multiverse Play : A decentralized NFT post-investment management platform connecting Web3 users and assets, including players, NFT holders, guilds, and developers, providing smart matching, task scheduling, asset management, and high liquidity.

Infrastructure Field

l Celestia : The first modular blockchain network with pluggable consensus and data availability layers, enabling anyone to quickly deploy decentralized blockchains without incurring the costs of guiding a new consensus network.

"After the baptism of 2022, the future cryptocurrency market will gradually transition from the unregulated 'barbaric growth' to the regulated and compliant 'rational prosperity'," Steve Chiu stated. In 2023, CGV will continue to explore popular Web3 tracks such as blockchain infrastructure, the metaverse, NFTs, DAOs, SocialFi, GameFi, and DeFi, and will keep a close eye on innovative trends such as wallet infrastructure, innovative stablecoins, Web3 mobile products, zero-knowledge proofs, soulbound tokens, and fully on-chain games, helping more excellent projects start smoothly and achieve sustainable growth and development.

About Cryptogram Venture (CGV)

Cryptogram Venture (CGV) is a research and investment institution in the crypto industry based in Japan with compliance qualifications. With a "research-driven investment" business orientation, it has participated in early investments in Republic, CasperLabs, AlchemyPay, The Graph, Bitkeep, Pocket, and Powerpool, as well as the yen stablecoin JPYW, which is regulated by the Japanese government. At the same time, CGV FoF is an LP for funds such as Huobi Venture, Rocktree Capital, and Kirin Fund. It has established brand events such as Web3 hackathons and industry summits. From July to October 2022, it initiated Japan's first Web3 hackathon, the Tokyo Web3 Summer Hackathon (TWSH), receiving joint support from institutions and experts such as the Japanese Ministry of Education, Keio University, SONY, and SoftBank. Currently, CGV has branches in regions such as Singapore, Canada, and mainland China.

CGV Official Website: https://www.cgv.fund/
CGV Twitter: https://twitter.com/CGVFOF
Project Contact: Yurinatyou@cgv.fund